AMREF Gives Mothers and Children a Healthy Start
The Issue
In Africa, childbirth and childhood are the two most dangerous events in a person’s life. Statistics bear this out: An African woman is six hundred times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than her British counterpart, while an African child is twenty-four times more likely than a British child to succumb, before age five, to common illnesses such as diarrhoea, malaria, and upper respiratory tract infection. HIV/AIDS often further complicates the situation.
Those who survive these early tribulations can be saddled with chronic health problems: crippling obstetric injuries in mothers, physical and mental disabilities in children. In a population as overwhelmingly young as Africa’s, where over 40% of people are under 15 years old, the social and economic costs will be enormous if we accept the status quo.
AMREF's Approach
Our investment in Africa’s long-term health begins at birth. We believe that with good health care and nutrition, mothers, newborns, and young children can overcome the cycle of ill-health that puts them — and Africa as a whole — at an early disadvantage.
AMREF places special importance on these vulnerable groups, making sure that many of our programmes are designed with their needs in mind.
We make sure that women and their partners have the education they need to make informed decisions about starting a family. We make sure families have access to clean water and know how to protect themselves from preventable diseases. We make sure pregnant women have access to medical care and advice during and after their terms. We make sure mothers and children have access to essential medicines, insecticide-treated bednets, and the care of professionally trained midwives.
We continue to make maternal, newborn, and child health one of the cornerstones of our research and advocacy programme, pressuring donors, African governments, and international organisations such as the UK Department for International Development, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank to increased their support of family planning, midwife training, malaria prevention, and other measures.
Projects & Stories
Our Work Training Surgeons and Repairing Lives in Tanzania
In 2008-09, under the auspices of our innovative Katine Community Partnership Project (see page 13 for more information) in northeastern Uganda, we quadrupled the number of women accessing family planning services for contraception and advice during pregancy. Our efforts also increased the number of women delivering their babies under the supervision of midwives and nurses.
Our Work Protecting Mothers and Children from Malaria in Coastal Tanzania
Since 2007, the Mtwara Malaria Control Programme has distributed over 9,000 insecticide-treated bednets in the malaria-prone coastal region of Tanzania. Over 90% of young children, nearly 80% of mothers, and 50% of fathers now sleep under nets. Malaria deaths have dropped significantly among mothers and children as a result.
Photo: Dan Chung/The Guardian